It was great being at the SF Giants Home Opening Game on April 5, 2019. It has been a while since I attended a home opening game.

I am fortunate my cousin invites me to attend games with her, otherwise I would not have gone. Going to the SF Giants games gives an excuse to hang out together.

This was an extra special home opening game, since it is the last time Bruce Bochy will be there as the manager. Watching him throw the pitch was indeed a special moment.

As is my custom, I arrived at the new Oracle Park before noon to roam around the stadium to shoot photographs. You can see my cousin purchased good seats behind home base.

I brought my Canon lenses – 16-35mm wide angle lens to get a good view of the entire field and the bay. I also used my 100-400mm zoom lens to get some closer shots of Bruce Bochy.

Even though the Giants lost to the Rays, I still enjoyed photographing the stadium and celebrating Bruce Bochy’s past accomplishments with the team.

Winning is important. But it is also important to celebrate a good manager and leader. Our expectation of any leader’s ability should be to give their all in their performance. We cannot expect 100% perfection. But we can be thankful to witness a leader’s passion and endurance to teach and train their players. Bruce Bochy has been a great leader and manager. I personally would like to thank Bruce Bochy for his dedication to the SF Giants and his ability to inspire the players and the fans.

This is the 3rd post of the SF
Giants Opening Day in 1993 at Candlestick Park. I gathered my photographs
of this day at the request of a fan who was at this game and also in the pre-game
parade.

You may wonder how I could have shot
so many photographs of this day or of Candlestick Park.

Why is Candlestick Park so special?
For me it represents the beginning of finding my passion in finding art at this
baseball stadium. I grew up at the Stick watching the Giants play ball. It was
a great place to be with family and friends while enjoying baseball. It was
easily accessible. We did not have to spend lots of money to have a good
time.

For many fans, Candlestick Park was
a special place where they grew up. It was a place where dads and moms took
their sons and daughters to watch the SF Giants and explained the game of
baseball. The Stick was the location for family gatherings to share their
love of baseball. Friends gathered together and spent quality time
together.

For many old SF Giants fans,
Candlestick Park brought together families and friends to build stronger bonds
and spend quality time together.

Even though the Stick is gone, the
memories hopefully can be remembered when we review these photographs.

Here are more photographs from Opening Day at Candlestick Park in 1993.

You can see I got there pretty early before the game, since there are a few pictures where there are lots of empty seats. I get into my “groove” of shooting photographs when the stadium was empty, and I could freely roam to take different views of the park.

It was easy access to go to any SF Giants game, since tickets were inexpensive. Therefore, I could spend hours enjoying all the different perspectives of the stadium.

It is amazing how so many fans in the Bay Area have special memories and place in their heart for this old former stadium.

One fan has special memories of this particular opening day. So I am posting more photographs of this day. I still have more so stay tuned. Good memories are important to keep and cherish. What are your special Candlestick Park memories?

Everybody loves a parade. This was a parade of famous SF Giants retired players. They rode in classic, antique, and a motorized cable cars. So who were the players in this parade?

Well there was Willie Mays, Vida Blue, Mike Sadek, Ed Halicki, John – The Count – Montefusco, and others. These are the names I photographed on the scoreboard.

The Grateful Dead sang the national anthem before the game began. I captured their name posted on the scoreboard.

This 1993 Home Opener game was against the Florida Marlins where the SF Giants won 4-3.

I took these photographs early before the game started. It’s too bad more fans did not come earlier to see the festivities. I am so glad I was able to capture this memorable time watching these great SF Giants players celebrate this first home game of the season.

I went thru my photographs to group together these opening day photos from 1993 upon a request of someone who was actually in this opening day parade.

It would be great to hear other fan’s memories about this event and game. I would appreciate to hear from others who attended this game to share their memories. I so glad I have these photos to remind me of this exciting parade and opening day. I know if I did not have these photographs I would have forgotten many of these details.

Keep preserving your life memories with photographs.

By the way, I will be posting my black and white photographs from this opening day in another blog post.

Welcome to Opening Day at Candlestick Park on Monday, April 12, 1993. The SF Giants played the new expansion team, the Florida Marlins that day. I am glad I went to the game early that day to watch the fun pregame ceremony activities.

If you look closely you can see “the good guys!” advertisement located on the out of town scoreboard between the American and National League. Unfortunately the company went out of business. It used to be my favorite consumer electronic store. I used to enjoy going into the store and checking out the new products such as the HiFi Receivers, Speakers, DVD Players, Camcorders, etc. I miss Candlestick Park and The Good Guys!

This was a fun opening day at Candlestick Park, where Willie Mays arrived in a light blue convertible car. This was the pre-game ceremony, and therefore the stadium was not very full yet.

Notice Willie Mays’ stats in his first 5 seasons in San Francisco.

I went down to the lower box seats by left field line to photograph the parade.

The SF Giants were playing against the Florida Marlins. This was the first year the Marlins played in the league.

It was always exciting to go to Opening Day since the stadium was sold out. There was always an air of excitement for this first game of the season. As was my custom, I made sure I arrived extra early to shoot lots of pictures to capture the memorable time. Little did I know that one day this stadium would be torn down and I would treasure these old pictures much more than I could imagine.

The SF Giants played the new expansion team, Florida Marlins, in the Giants Home Opener on Monday, April 12, 1993. Home Openers for the Giants were always guaranteed sellout games and tickets were harder to come by. I was extremely happy that I was able to go to this game. The Giants won the game, 4-3.

It was always nice to see the large crowd of people at Candlestick Park which was not a common sight unless it was the Home Opener, weekend Dodgers games, or Post Season games. Here was a look down the 3rd base side with the distinctive press box at the top of the stadium.

The last Opening Day National Anthem for the SF Giants at Candlestick Park was on April 8, 1999. It rained earlier in the day but the weather cleared up nicely for the opener. This was a bittersweet moment. This was the last year the SF Giants played at Candlestick but they were going to move to a brand new scenic and state of the art ballpark at Willie Mays Plaza. AT&T Park is flourishing now and Candlestick Park has been demolished.

The Giants helped to make the day extra special by defeating the San Diego Padres, 12-4. Shawn Estes got the win and Stan Spencer took the loss.

I took this photograph on the 3rd base side including the left field corner. It is April 12, 1993 when the SF Giants played against the Florida Marlins. This was the inaugural year for the Marlins, where the team was created by an expansion draft in the off season of 1992.

I like the Press Box at Candlestick Park. It’s too bad I never had the opportunity to sit inside or walk thru it. It was a unique feature of Candlestick Park.

It was fun to be there on Opening Day where the stadium was filled to maximum capacity. The excitement in the air with such a large crowd was a memorable experience.

Grounds crew preparing the field for the April 12, 1993 Opening Day game between the SF Giants and Florida Marlins.

Tony Bennett sang “America the Beautiful” and of course – “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” Click on the link to see some old memories Tony Bennett singing in addition to the actual game.

This was a memorable opening day. Willie Mays presented his godson – Barry Bonds – the 1992 National League MVP trophy while he was with the Pittsburgh Pirates. This was Barry Bonds first year playing with the SF Giants.